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Buffalo LinkTheater review

How much is HDMI worth to you? That’s the question posed by Buffalo’s LinkTheater media streamer

from
£180.00

29 August 2007/6:00BST

Bit of a weird one this. There’s no doubt that the LinkTheater’s price, which stands at about half that of its media streamer rivals, is an attractive selling point for what is, in many respects, a tidy piece of kit.

No HDMI, no problem?

The only problem is that positive price point comes at, well, a price. For many potential customers HD streaming will be very much on the agenda and a media streamer without HD support may well seem like a flying car that runs on leaded petrol.

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That said, if you’re sticking with your standard-def telly for the time being, or if HD content isn’t a big deal to you, then that £100 selling price is going to seem pretty damn alluring.

Picture (im)perfect

Shame, though, that the same can’t be said of the video performance. This is where you’ll see the real cost of that lack of HDMI connection and come to understand just why the LinkTheater is so cheap – the amount of noise and pixilation in the picture was annoying and it wasn’t nearly as colourful as the video produced by HDMI-toting rivals.

It also seems to turn its nose up at larger AVI files even though it’ll greedily chow down on lots of smaller ones.

Stuff says...

Buffalo LinkTheater review

The Buffalo LinkTheater seems like a great way to join the fun without splashing out but you may not be getting quite the future tech you bargained for